The Sixth Sense: Do Extra-Sensory Abilities Really Exist?

What is ESP?

ESP or extrasensory perception sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but if you have ever had a relatively accurate premonition of a future event or dreamed something that later came to pass, you have experienced what is referred to as ESP by believers, and it’s much more common than you probably think.

There is no doubt, therefore, that what believers define as ESP does indeed actually exist; the debate around ESP is instead a debate on what ESP actually is: a truly extrasensory perception (a “sixth sense”) that cannot be explained by science as we know it (and is instead explained by parapsychology), or a random occurrence that can in fact be explained by conventional science.

But, before launching into the debate, it’s best to define what is covered by the umbrella term of ESP (first coined in 1934 by Duke University professor J.B. Rhine); generally, extrasensory perception is thought to include the following hypothetical abilities:

  • Telepathy (thought reading)
  • Clairvoyance (seeing events currently happening elsewhere)
  • Precognition (seeing future events)
  • Retrocognition (seeing past events)
  • Mediumship (communicating with and channeling the spirits of the dead)
  • Psychometry (the ability to gather information just by touching an object)

The Sixth Sense: Do Extra-Sensory Abilities Really Exist?How ESP Works

There is no current agreement on the exact mechanics of how ESP functions; some believe people with ESP are sensing energy fields or waves that we have not yet learned to detect with scientific equipment, while others feel this theory is incomplete as it cannot account for precognition, nor the fact that distance never seems to be a factor in extra sensory abilities.

Others believe that ESP must be accounted for by something beyond the known physical world, such as an inter-dimensional crossover of information which enters into our subconscious minds. This is, of course, a possibility far outside our current scientific understanding of the world.

ESP: the Forand AgainstArguments

So, what is the current evidence for ESP, and how and why do people oppose it? The arguments for ESP are largely as follows:

  • A large body of evidence. Obviously, this is not scientific evidence, but the sheer volume of reported experiences of ESP phenomenon make it hard to discount entirely.
  • Events that appear to be actual evidence of ESP, which are not simply anecdotal. For example, in 1898, Morgan Robertson published “Futility,” which featured the Titan, a doomed luxury liner which, one foggy April night, meets a tragic end after hitting an iceberg (and which had a very insufficient quantity of lifeboats). Fourteen years later, the Titanic sunk, under the exact same conditions and at the same time of year. The author was said to have experienced a kind of “trance” when writing the book. Such events as the writing of this prophetic novel are fairly frequent occurrences throughout the history of mankind, but of course cannot be repeated easily in controlled circumstances, so cannot be deemed scientific proof.
  • Experiments done by various parapsychologists which appear to have yielded credible results. Experiments have been done since the 1930s, starting with J.B. Rhine’s work with zener cards (in which subjects were asked to guess the pattern on the back of a deck of plain white cards), that seem to suggest some people do in fact have ESP. Experiments conducted today often consist of a “sender” who concentrates on a certain object and a “receiver” who describes what he or she sees in his or her mind, which is then recorded, or people attempting to influence the outcomes of machines (e.g. random number generators) with only their minds. Both of these kinds of experiments have at times yielded surprising results in favour of ESP, though it is clear very few people seem to possess the ability.
  • Scientific data supporting intercessory prayer. Some forms of prayer seem to work in a way that suggests the existence of ESP; some double-blind experiments show that sick patients who are prayed for seem to recover better than those who are not.

While the arguments for ESP are compelling, there are many who do not agree with them whatsoever. Rather, they believe in one or more of the following arguments against the existence of ESP:

  • ESP seems completely at odds with the “rules” of the universe as we know them, say many skeptics. There is simply nothing available which currently suggests ESP phenomena could be possible, let alone plausible.
  • The anecdotal evidence can be explained away by simple coincidence. Some skeptics argue that, with over 6 billion people being present on the planet today, the fact that some of them occasionally “predict” future events is really not that farfetched and can be easily written off as a (statistically likely) fluke. Likewise, say these skeptics, those who believe in ESP are declining to factor in the brain’s great ability to make reasoned, educated guesses. Morgan Robertson’s book that seemed to “predict” the Titanic disaster, for example, was written by a former seaman who knew a lot about the ship technology current at that time. The author simply understood the kind of conditions it would take for a luxury liner that size to sink, something those working on the actual Titanic ought to have understood better themselves. Many people, skeptics argue, simply have in-depth knowledge or heightened intuition that allows their subconscious minds to come up with quite detailed, incredibly spot-on guesses.
  • Many skeptics feel that parapsychologists’ often wind up with positive lab results because they utilize poor scientific methods. Faulty mathematical models and researcher bias and influence can, they say, easily account for many of the supposedly positive outcomes. In Rhine’s experiments, for example, Rhine often made the mistake of making eye contact with the subject, meaning that he or she could have simply had the ability to read his gaze and body language for signs of which card he was holding. Likewise, the results attained by these scientists often prove impossible to reproduce in controlled conditions. There have even been accusations of fraud thrown around.
  • No one has been able to succeed in claiming James Randi’s one million dollar prize, which is currently offered to anyone who can prove they have ESP abilities in a publicized, supervised demonstration. Many high-profile psychics have accepted this challenge, then backed out. (Of course, a publicized demonstration is not exactly in itself scientific.)

ESP: Conclusions

At the end of the day, neither the case for or against ESP can be proven at this time; while ESP flies in the face of our current known “rules” of the universe, one must keep in mind that in the past, mankind has adhered to many limited and outright false such rules. Let us not forget that people once believed that the earth was flat, or that it was utterly impossible to travel into space—the universe is a much more complex, diverse, and fluid place than many human beings give it credit for. In the case of ESP, only time will tell if these abilities are genuinely possible or not.


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